De-annexation ordinance on today's agenda

Tuesday

Jun 11, 2013 at 10:28 PMJun 11, 2013 at 10:31 PM

The Neosho City Council is scheduled to meet this morning to consider creating a city-ordinance for de-annexation, to consider bids to either repair or replace a broken pump at the city's wastewater plant, and to take a vote on changes to the city's checking accounts.

Whitney Saporito

The Neosho City Council is scheduled to meet this morning to consider creating a city-ordinance for de-annexation, to consider bids to either repair or replace a broken pump at the city's wastewater plant, and to take a vote on changes to the city's checking accounts.

The council meets at 9 a.m. at city hall council chambers, 203 E. Main Street.

Council voted on first reading June 4 to approve creating Chapter 435 of the Neosho City Code of Ordinances, which would address de-annexation requests involving both city-owned and privately-owned property.

The city currently does not have a formal process on the books to address a de-annexation request.

The council's discussion of de-annexation began in a May 21 meeting, at which time they voted down an annexation request from Trinity Learning Center, located at 19937 Quapaw Lane, who were requesting to enter city limits in order to hook up to city water.

Mayor Richard Davidson said the council plans to further discuss their options in helping the school with water. "The sooner we get this ordinance on the books, the sooner we have a path that allows us to give them some guidance on what the city may or may not want to do and how it relates to getting them water," Davidson said. "We're trying to get the options on the table to understand what we can do to help."

He also commented, in the May 21 meeting, that the school is already contiguous with city limits, due to the annexation of stretches of Highway 59 and AA Highway, which were brought into the city under a former city administration. Davidson said then that he believes that stretch of roadway was brought into the city inappropriately. However, the ordinance the council will vote on will not address any specific de-annexation, but only create a process to handle any de-annexation requests in the future.

The council will also consider several options on how to address a broken return pump at the city's wastewater plant.

According to the council packet, the Shoal Creek Wastewater Plant has two pumps that are used for recirculation of activated sludge in the treatment process, however, one of those pumps was recently taken out of service because of a broken enclose tube.

After the pump was inspected, it was determined that the pump, which has been in service for 27 years, would have to be rebuilt.

City staff has recommended that the city go with a rebuilt bowl, that with new parts and rebuild and machine work would cost $26,677.

However, city staff also provided council with three other options: replacing both pumps for an estimated cost of $100,000, replacing the broken pump for a cost of $76,615, or new bowl assembly, with parts and work, at a cost of $31,543.

All costs received for a new pump or for parts came from the factory distributor, Pump and Power, of Lenexa, Kan.

In the staff recommendation, it was noted that repairs would take six to eight weeks, while replacing both pumps with new ones could take 12 to 14 weeks.

Finally, council will also vote on a resolution to designate new signatories on the city's checking accounts at First Community Bank. The city recently switched their banking services from Great Southern Bank to First Community Bank.